Case Number 25960: Small Claims Court

KNIFE FIGHT

The Charge

When they're at their worst, he's at his best.

The Case

Knife Fight sounds like an interesting premise. Rob Lowe (Parks and
Recreation) is a political campaign guru who takes candidates in the middle
of scandal and makes them electable. He is good at his gig, and he turns around
the campaign of a thinly veiled "John Edwards" Southern governor (Eric
McCormack, Will and Grace) when he gets caught having an affair. Yet the
political consultant's conscience begins to gnaw at him, and he decides to help
out a candidate he believes in. Enter Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) as an
altruistic doctor who wants to run for governor of California against an evil
Republican action star. Can Rob Lowe's team get her elected even when her heart
is in the right place?

The actors here are fine, and they are all game to give this Knife
Fight a whirl. The problem is they are stuck with a script that is too light
to be true drama and too heavy to be a comedy. Also it has so many campaigns
going on at once it's tough to keep track or truly care about the outcome of any
of them. It desperately wants to be The West Wing smart, but pans out
somewhere closer to The American President. None of it dramatically
works, and it starts to feel tedious and draggy. Not to mention Lowe is supposed
to be so awesome at his job, but the commercial spots they show us that he helps
develop are saccharine and not all that impressive.

The DVD from MPI gets short shrift here too, as if they weren't betting
people would be too interested in the feature. The transfer is passable although
it looks very muted and muddy. Part of this is simply style, but it's not crisp
or precise by any means. The surround sound mix is fine since it's all talk and
no action, so five speakers is overkill. There are no extras save for a trailer
that wouldn't garner much votes. It's all middle of the road like the film
itself.

If only the script were sharper and more brave to take on politics and the
ridiculous spin jobs that are constantly happening. Lowe is a likable guy, and
he deserves better than this. If you're a fan of his it might be worth checking
out, but otherwise this is one that won't require you to exercise your civic
duty any time soon. Knife Fight is a political comedy with no teeth and a
political drama with no emotional stakes. A good episode of Meet the
Press would be better. But then again real life politicians are nowhere near
as pretty as Rob Lowe or Carrie-Anne Moss.

The Verdict

Guilty of not knowing what party it belongs to, Knife Fight is
sentenced to an endless loop of one episode of The Friday Filibuster.